TOKYO: Two newly-promoted Japanese politicians moved yesterday to distance themselves from allegations of extremism after pictures emerged of them posing alongside the leader of a domestic neo-Nazi party.
Minister Sanae Takaichi and party policy chief Tomomi Inada are seen in separate photographs next to Kazunari Yamada on the home page of the National Socialist Japanese Workers Party.
The pictures will add fuel to claims that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is increasingly surrounding himself with people on the right of Japanese politics.
Yamada’s blog postings indicate admiration for Adolf Hitler and praise for the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre.
In video footage posted on the website, Yamada is seen wearing a stylised swastika during street demonstrations.
Captions for the photographs claim they were taken “sometime in June or July 2011 when (Yamada) visited the conservative lawmakers for talks.”
Spokesmen for both senior lawmakers acknowledged yesterday that the photographs were genuine and had been taken in their offices over the last few years, but denied there was any political affiliation.
“He was an assistant for an interviewer, and was taking notes and photos,” a member of staff at Takaichi’s office said, referring to Yamada.
“We had no idea who he was back then, but he requested a snap shot with her. (The minister) wouldn’t refuse such requests.”
AFP
